It's a Steep Price For Peace
by Zerrat
Summary: Some things, once broken, can never be repaired. In the aftermath of a nightmare, the Hanshin Police step into the void left by RAPT. The end of an era for Tokyo, but what is the cost of lasting peace?


**Disclaimer –** All characters and dialogue present in the anime and manga _Burst Angel _and _Burst Angel: Infinity_ are registered trademarks and copyright of Funimation and studio Gonzo.

**Warnings: **Extreme violence, character death, angst, torture, murder, suicidal impulses, suggestions of prostitution, general grimness, and the idea that things don't always work out in the end. Mentions of implied Meg/Jo. I wasn't going to rate this M, but looking at the content spelled out like that… what the hell was I thinking? Yeah, M-rated.

* * *

**It's a Steep Price for Peace **

**_RAPT HQ Attack! Bai-Lan Ends Three Days of Madness_**

_TOKYO. Chinese syndicate Bai-Lan launched a full-scale attack on the central RAPT building yesterday,  
ending three days of intense curfews and military force, that the syndicate and neighbouring city  
police forces have labelled as 'unlawful'. Using an unnamed cybot, piloted by one of Bai-Lan's top agents,  
Sei Laoban and her cell have successfully brought an end to the new laws. _

_Following the attack on RAPT, the Hanshin Police from Osaka stepped in to bring order to the rubble-  
strewn streets. _

_RAPT's extreme laws and punishments have left the total death toll at 2,376 dead and thousands more  
injured, leading to speculation that RAPT will be prosecuted for unlawful actions against the population  
of Tokyo._

"_It's hard to say what'll happen now," Chief Katsu of the Hanshin Police said yesterday. "We'll have to  
determine if RAPT's actions were as unlawful as Ms. Laoban claims." The Hanshin Police have imposed  
curfews on Tokyo and restricted access to the area around the remains of the building. _

_It is suggested that Sei Laoban launched the attack on RAPT, following the absorption of the Bai-Lan  
__syndicate into RAPT's circle of influence. _

"_She wasn't happy to be working for them," a source from within Bai-Lan has revealed. "That's why I  
think she finally decided to do something about them. To stop the madness."_

_Continued on page 3_

* * *

It was raining, the day they finally let Jo's soul rest.

Sei listened to it pound against the material of her umbrella, staring at the muddy, soaked ground as she tried to ignore the yawning pit of grief in her stomach. The grass had been trampled flat, not by well-wishers, but by those enemies that wished to see if Jo, _the _Jo, was truly dead, and that they no longer had to keep one eye open at night. They disgusted her.

She lifted her gaze, taking in the small gaggle of people who remained. Those people, who wished to pay their respects to the end, were few. Jo hadn't been one to make friends, after all. Sei watched the attendants load the body into the furnace, wishing that things had turned out differently.

To her left was Amy, hugging Sei's arm hard through the thick wool of her coat and taking advantage of the umbrella's safety. Even now, Amy was an opportunist. Sei had to smile, but it felt strange and stiff on her face. She hadn't had a lot to smile about, not in recent weeks.

On her right, drenched in the soaking rain, was Meg. She'd taken Jo's death hard – perhaps it had been because of the harsh way they'd parted. While in the interrogation rooms the Hanshin had set up, Takane had revealed Meg's desperation to stop Jo, and Jo's choice to leave Meg behind. How much had been left unsaid, between the two?

The girl's eyes were shadowed, glazed over in grief, her frame looking small and broken under the weight of Jo's old jacket.

They were still a family, though. Despite the walls that had sprung up between them, Sei would wait, would let Meg's grief run its course. She'd be there for Meg, the same way that her grandfather had been there for Sei, when her mother had died.

That's what families did. They were there for each other. They'd help each other through this.

Meg lifted her eyes to Sei's as the furnace door swung shut, the sound seeming to reverberate through Sei. Her blue eyes were dead, her gaze unflinching as the attendants barred the furnace door. Perhaps she'd already died, the day she'd found Jo in the wreckage. Sei felt Amy's arms tighten around her arm, and she placed an arm on the girl's shoulder as Amy sobbed.

"I won't let them get away with this," Meg said quietly, her hand tightening around the tattered cream scarf in her hands, her bangs soaked to her face.

And somehow, Sei knew she wouldn't.

* * *

_**RAPT Faces Corruption Charges**_

_TOKYO. __Current RAPT President, Robert Howard, and the remaining survivors of the RAPT board of directors,  
faced court yesterday as they fought charges of negligence, corruption and rumors of human experimentation,  
following the attack on the organization last year by Bai-Lan and the elevation of Osaka's Hanshin Police to  
Tokyo's elected peacekeepers. _

_Outside court today, Howard was optimistic that the charges will be dropped. _

"_Those responsible for experiments such as Project Zero and the Sister Luciana project, and the corrupt  
dealings in Osaka two years ago, are no longer with the company. I, personally, had no knowledge of  
Glenford's plans, nor of __Ishihara's previous projects and corruption."_

_Howard's comments come at a time when ill-will towards RAPT is at an all-time high. Protesters outside  
the venue __were quick to voice their discontent. Hanshin officers had to forcibly control the crowds when  
Howard and his fellow RAPT board members arrived._

"_It really shows how low people hold RAPT," Detective Takane Katsu of the Hanshin Police told this reporter  
yesterday. "They really rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. Justice will be done, and everyone who lost  
someone to RAPT will be satisfied. Or, they better be. We ain't (sic) going to stand for any vigilantes taking  
out their issues on these guys."_

_Cleared Bai-Lan heiress, Sei Laoban, is said to be among key witnesses against RAPT._

_Continued page 3_

* * *

Meg had grown more mature in the past year, Sei noted absently as she watched the lawyer pace the courtroom. It was hard to see the burning rage now, not unless you looked for it. The tightness around her eyes, the ease of her scowl, the bitterness to her voice. She felt Meg shift in the seat next to her, crossing her boots in front of her as she tried to emulate Jo's careless sprawl.

It was worrying. Meg's determined imitation of Jo had its benefits, of course. Her work in Bai-Lan had received focus, the likes of which Sei had never seen in Meg before. She was willing, she was capable, and filled the void the gunner had left in her death. Perhaps, Sei had reasoned at the time, it might have been Meg's way of coping with her loss. Now, she wondered if the behaviour was even more destructive than the black melancholy of before.

Had she been wrong, to allow Meg to follow this path?

Sei had hardly been there for her team, not since her grandfather had taken an unexpected turn for the worse. The old man had taken his enforced retirement with good grace, and Sei had to wonder if he'd known about the cancer when he'd given his leave for her to follow her heart.

"And you say you had _no _knowledge of Project Zero?" the lawyer demanded, breaking Sei out of her reverie.

Howard, in the witness stand, spread his hands. "There is naught but the word of an underworld syndicate's heir to tie me to the Project. Just because I work for RAPT, does not mean that I was a party to their corruption and schemes."

The last was said with a curling lip, as if he loathed the very memory of his predecessors. Sei wondered then, how much of it was an act?

During the courtroom recess, Sei followed her agent to the rear of the building, leaning against the wall as Meg paced about, an angry tiger. The redhead ran a tan-gloved hand through her hair, muttering something under her breath, before staring dully at the palm of her hand.

"Meg-" Sei started, but Meg whirled, smashing her fist into the white-washed wall of the courthouse.

"They're going to get away with it," she said, her voice rasping, her dark-circled eyes boring into Sei's own. A year might have passed, but Meg's eyes were still as dead as they'd been that day in the rain. For her Bai-Lan cell, that one year had been a long one.

"You don't know that."

"I can see it." Her laugh was short and bitter. "RAPT was smart. They burned the paper trail that'd implicate them, they saw the writing on the wall…" Meg's eyes wandered for a moment, the leather of her gloves creaking as her fist tightened. "They're going to get away with killing Jo. What… _what kind of justice is that?!_"

It was then that Sei noticed that Meg was trembling.

* * *

_**Green Light Given To Hanshin To Clean Up Tokyo!**_

_TOKYO. In a press conference outside the new police station yesterday, Chief Katsu of the Hanshin Police  
has revealed that he and Takeshi Uragawa have come to a deal over the future of the Hanshin, following  
their installation as Tokyo's main peacekeeping force._

_After stepping into the void following RAPT's dissolution, Chief Katsu had this to say._

"_It was only a matter of time, before we assumed the official duties that RAPT previously covered. Takeshi  
Uragawa approached me yesterday, asking for us to work in a more official capacity. We have to clean up  
Tokyo's streets, and we'll do that."_

_While the major CEOs in RAPT have escaped conviction for their alleged crimes, Chief Katsu has said that  
Mayor Uragawa was reluctant to allow them to return to their old post. Tokyo citizens have long memories,  
and still see RAPT and its associates in a negative light._

"_Many people lost someone, during their failed operation," one of Chief Katsu's aides has told the paper.  
"They don't forget that kind of thing."_

_When questioned on their plans regarding the Shibuya district, the Chief declined to comment._

_Continued page 5_

* * *

The flash from the photographers was blinding as Chief Katsu stepped away from the podium, lifting a hand in a semblance of a wave as Takane fell into step behind him. It had gone better than she'd thought it would have, she thought as she turned her back, on the photographers and journalists still screaming their questions, still pushing to get that one picture.

She followed her father to the police car they'd had waiting for them, nodding to the young officer that opened the door for them.

"And you said they'd maul me," Chief Katsu said, when they'd both gotten into the car.

"Given their experience with RAPT-"

"Which we helped deliver them from, three years ago," her father cut in. "To the people of Tokyo, the Hanshin are heroes."

Takane stared out the window, watching the glowing neon lights pass by. She missed Osaka's cleaner, friendlier nature. In Osaka, you could still walk around without being armed. Here, however… Their driver took the usual, broad detour around Shibuya. Even the slightest whiff of police presence might cause that rats nest to go up like a keg of gunpowder…

"I think that the positive outcome today signifies something," Chief Katsu said, drawing a cigar from his pocket. He didn't bother offering one around.

"Which is?"

"That Tokyo is ready to let go of its darker past, its underworld elements. That Tokyo ready to embrace the law, and those that uphold it. That Tokyo is ready for change."

Takane rested her chin in her palm, still staring out the window. So, her father was planning on raiding Shibuya. Maybe it'd work, or maybe he was just nuts for considering it. She'd need to call in a few favours, then. She had a few people who owed her, and knew a few who could do with letting off a bit of steam. That Meg chick, for one. Takane had last seen her at the final hearing on the RAPT case, and the coldness in her eyes had been… unnerving.

She nearly scoffed at herself. She was the leader of the Kanbaku. Some pretty-faced girl was not enough to unnerve her… was it?

"Times really are changing," Takane muttered softly, as they pulled up at their hotel. "When Meg is the one that scares me."

* * *

_**Initiative Raid On Shibuya A Success**_

_TOKYO. Chief Katsu of the __Tokyo-Osaka Hanshin Police Initiative has labelled yesterday's raid on criminal  
__hideout Shibuya a 'raging success' during last night's press conference outside Station 1, with many of  
__Shibuya's criminal elements apprehended._

_Following calls for the Initiative to begin to clean out the illegal sectors of Tokyo, the raid was launched in secret,  
__in co-operation with members of the Kanbaku biker gang and the Chinese Bai-Lan syndicate. _

"_I'm proud of my boys. We've come a long way in three years, but we've still got a lot of work ahead of us,"  
__Detective Takane Katsu said, yesterday. A key figure in the Tokyo-Osaka Hanshin Police Initiative, it was with  
__her connections that the Initiative was able to call on the resources they needed to successfully complete the  
__raid._

_One Tokyo citizen questions the Initiative's reliance on shady organizations such as Bai-Lan and the Kanbaku.  
_"_If these guys are really out to clean our streets, then why are they letting criminal syndicates like Bai-Lan, the Kokuren  
__and the Kanbaku free?"_

_Continued page 3_

* * *

Takane whirled with a curse, as she heard gunfire from the rickety building she'd just sent Meg into.

_Bloody hell! _The policeman thought angrily as she pounded across the cracked, concrete streets, the smoke from the fire burning in her lungs. The damn girl had closed the door behind her after she'd gone in, for some unknown reason, and frankly Takane didn't feel like sparing the time it'd take to turn the knob. With a feral yell, she smashed her boot into the wooden door, busting it completely out of its frame. The door crashed to the floor, and she ran inside without missing a beat.

Her ears strained for a clue, for something to tell her where Meg had gone. She thought she heard sobbing from somewhere above her. Her heart in her throat, she took the stairs three at a time, bokken clenched in her fist.

_Damnit, Tokyo would never forgive me if I let her get hurt!_

Meg stood over the dead bodies of the occupants of the house, her back to Takane as she reloaded her guns. Takane stood in the doorway, wordlessly staring from the bodies to… Meg.

_Holy cow on a pogo-stick… _her mind whispered as she took in the blood, the defensive wounds on their arms, the blood splattered over Meg's cheek and eye as the redhead turned. She lunged, and her backhand caught Meg by surprise. Good. She was sick of Meg's dead-eyed stares –

Meg touched her lip gingerly, blood coming away on her fingers from the split.

"I gave you _orders_, Mitarai!" Takane roared, grabbing Meg by the chin and forcing her to meet her eyes. The redhead didn't flinch, her eyes stony even in the face of Takane's rage. "I told you _non-lethal!_ You can't do this kind of shit! Not when you're working for the Initiative!"

Meg's eyes locked with her own, dispassionate and flinty as she wrenched her face from Takane's hands with a rough shove.

Sighing, Takane forced herself to look anywhere except at the dead bodies. Had it really been in cold blood? Damnit, she'd known that Meg had to work off some steam, but this was just crazy. She sheathed the bokken on her back.

"Seriously. You can't just go in, all gung-ho, like – like –"

"Like Jo," Meg said flatly, turning her back on Takane and walking away. Takane scowled. The girl was _nuts. _She wasn't thinking clearly, and god only knew what she'd do when she was outside of Takane's sight. The cop followed her outside the building, one hand on the handle of her bokken, her eyes straining and watering in the smoke as she searched for Meg. She spotted her, braced against the wall, fallen to one knee.

Meg was heaving her guts up, horrified at what she'd just done.

* * *

_**Syndicates under scrutiny!**_

_TOKYO. New plans, regarding the future operations of crime syndicates, have been leaked by an Initiative  
__source, revealing that clans such as Bai-Lan, the Kokuren, and the Kanbaku have been placed under  
__severe restrictions and increased observation. _

_This paper__ can reveal that the Initiative has plans to defang high-profile criminal organizations,  
__starting with the biker gang Kanbaku, before moving to larger targets such as Bai-Lan and the  
__Yakuza._

"_There are plans to show the people of Tokyo how serious the Initiative is about the law," the source  
__has said. "We've let Bai-Lan and the Kokuren go too long now. We aren't soft on crime, no matter who  
__is committing it."_

_The revelation of this plan follows claims that Detective Takane Katsu covered up five brutal murders  
__during the Shibuya raid last month, reportedly committed by an unnamed Bai-Lan agent. _

_It is believed that Detective Katsu has been friends with the agent for a number of years, in spite of  
__the agent's known criminal leanings. _

_Calls for Detective Katsu to stand down have been amplified by her refusal to sever ties with her old gang,  
__the Kanbaku._

_Continued page 13_

* * *

"…You know, I didn't think you were serious about this," Amy said, raising her eyebrows dramatically as they sat in the airport lounge.

Sei smiled. "Even when we were in the car, driving here?"

"I kept thinking you'd go, "Oh, wait, I'm just trolling you" and then you'd take me back to do some real work," Amy sighed, resting her chin on the suitcase in her lap. "Some hope _that _turned out to be."

"You know my thoughts on this, Amy. What with the added attention and ill-feeling towards Bai-Lan… it's really not the place for you." Sei smiled, trying to take the sting out of her words. "You shouldn't be slaving away in a computer room. You should be going to school, having some fun."

Amy pouted. "Yeah, but I _like _slaving away in a computer room!"

"That's all well and good, Amy, but I'm only looking out for your best interests."

They sat in companionable silence for a while, listening to the bustle of the airport, the chime of announcements over the speakers. It was around half an hour until Amy's flight left, but Sei had time to burn. After all, what did she have to go back to? Paperwork? Meg never checked in anymore, and Amy was leaving for a better future, now.

Amy looked up at Sei, then, her hazel eyes serious.

"Do you really think it's going to get that bad?" she asked quietly, toying with the zipper of her suitcase.

Sei paused – Amy had always been smart for her age. Yet another reason for her not to waste her life in Bai-Lan.

"I'm not sure how bad it'll get," Sei said, looking up at the ceiling, her stomach feeling cold and shrunken as she contemplated the uncertain future that stretched before her. "Anger towards Bai-Lan has gotten extremely strong."

"And that's why." Amy's smile was a little sad. She was fourteen, now. How did all these years pass so fast? It seemed like it was only yesterday, that Amy had been squabbling with Meg over the TV, with Jo throwing the occasional barb at the pair of them to shut their mouths. A time when they'd been a family. Though they were fractured, they had been _there _for one another.

It was a time long gone, now.

"Are you sure you can handle Meg on your own?" Amy asked, suddenly. She looked up as her flight was called for boarding, her eyes tormented as she silently begged Sei to let her stay. Sei couldn't bring herself to deny the girl she'd always thought of as her younger sister - so she turned away.

"I think I can handle a moody teenager."

And then Amy was gone. Sei watched the aeroplane begin to roll away, a strange feeling in her stomach. Apprehension? Regret? She turned away, unable to stomach the sight of the plane rocketing down the runway.

* * *

_**Bai-Lan To Collaborate With Initiative**_

_TOKYO. Bai-Lan leader Sei Laoban has entered talks with the Tokyo Initiative to collaborate with the major  
police force, following the leakage of Initiative plans to put syndicates under increased scrutiny. Outside  
Station 1 today, Ms. Laoban confirmed that the Japanese faction of Bai-Lan, intended to cooperate with  
the Initiative to the full extent of the law._

"_This is what we've been hoping to accomplish all along," Ms. Laoban said today. "We have always  
hoped to have Tokyo at peace one day, and we would be honoured to assist the Initiative in their  
__endeavours."_

_Ill-will towards syndicates such as Bai-Lan and the Kokuren has skyrocketed, following Detective Katsu's  
alleged cover-up of murders for Bai-Lan._

_Continued page 39_

* * *

He was sobbing through his gag, curled up in his blood-soaked sheets as his entire body shook. Shaking from the pain? Hardly. Her lip curled in anger as she tightened the cables around his wrists, then shrugged back into her shirt and jeans. She'd barely even begun to extract her revenge, and he was already breaking. Perhaps it was from the fear he felt. The disgusting man was _afraid _of her, _afraid _of all that she'd do to him.

Robert Howard had every reason to fear her.

She holstered her gun, her fingers slipping on the blood that had smeared on the barrel and trigger. Her teeth bared in a grin as she fished around in her bag, for the bolt cutters she'd stowed in there. It had taken her years to build up the courage she'd needed for this, and months to refine her plan to perfection. Strangely, though, she no longer felt fear or repulsion at what she planned. It was as if she no longer _felt _at all.

He was crying, she realized as she stared down at her captive, the bolt cutters weighing heavily in her hands. How unappealing. Perhaps she should assure him that he _did _deserve what was coming to him. She supposed that it would be a consolation, that she wasn't just some random thug off the streets, that she had a reason for her vengeance.

"I would never have had to do this," she told him, her voice low and harsh. He was missing an eye – she hadn't remembered doing that. "had you told the truth at the inquests. Had you not gotten away with killing Jo."

For the life he had taken, the lives he had ruined, she would bring justice and wreak bloody vengeance on him. Just as she'd done to RAPT's other board members, and the weak and easily-led judge that had proclaimed them innocent of RAPT's crimes.

The screams echoed through the apartment.

It was some hours before the Initiative showed up, answering a call put in by one of his nosier neighbors. Feeling cheated of the remainder of her sport, Meg put a bullet through Robert Howard's head just as Takane lunged for her. She only regretted that she didn't have the time to turn her gun onto herself.

* * *

_**Bai-Lan Agent Arrested Over RAPT Murders**_

_TOKYO. In court yesterday, a top Bai-Lan agent has been charged with the torture and murder of the RAPT CEOs that escaped  
conviction four years ago, including the murder of Robert Howard, the ex-president of RAPT. _

_Megumi Mitarai was allegedly found at the crime-scene, Mr. Howard having not long perished before the Initiative answered  
desperate calls by Howard's neighbour, Toromaru Shiba. It is believed that it took the Initiative several hours to answer the call,  
in spite of the slew of recent slayings across the vindicated RAPT personnel._

_Howard's death brings the total body count, to fourteen. _

"_It's a shame, to see that Mitarai has been so caught up in revenge," Chief Katsu said, during last night's press conference. "I  
am told she was a loyal and gifted agent."_

_Mitarai declined to comment on her charges as she was escorted to prison, to await her hearing in March. _

"_Of course, we will be challenging these charges," Bai-Lan's new leader, Sei Laoban, told this reporter outside court yesterday.  
She was unavailable for further comments._

_In light of the slayings, it appears unlikely that the public will allow the alliance between the Tokyo Initiative and Bai-Lan to go  
__unchallenged._

_Continued page 23_

* * *

The Initiative's prison was located an isolated, barren rock, far enough from the coast to make it impossible to escape and swim for it, but close enough that travelling out to it wasn't a hassle. It was maximum security, set deep into rock and with the finest equipment money could buy. She had to wonder about that, had to wonder if that facility had once belonged to RAPT. The Initiative hardly had that kind of money to throw around.

Sei followed the Initiative Warden through the sterile halls, listening to the ranting and ravings of those in the mental illness wing of the prison. The worst of Tokyo's criminals had been defanged and left to rot on this barren island, with many of them receiving treatment for various mental illnesses. Instead of stopping in the treatment wing, or the regular cells, the Warden led her deeper underground, deeper into the isolation cells.

It reminded her of another time, another prison. She'd been going to see the same person, in fact. Sei's mouth tightened at the memory. She hadn't been able to help, back then. What made her think, that she could help now? The memory of a time long gone, a time when four Bai-Lan agents had worked together, had nearly been as sisters, flashed to mind.

Finally, the Warden stopped, the fluorescent light gleaming off the top of his bald head. He gestured to the barred entrance of the cell, to where the inmate lay, stretched out on the narrow bed. The cell was bare of any comforts, aside from a thin blanket crumpled at the end of the bed.

"Meg," Sei said in a low voice, as the Warden backed off a few steps. It killed her, to see Meg like this. Is this how Jo had envisioned things, five years later?

The inmate swung her legs slowly over the edge of the bed, looking worse than Sei had ever seen her. The dusty grey of her prison garb made her look paler, her face more drawn, and the circles under her eyes seemed darker.

"Sei," she rasped, her eyes finally meeting Sei's.

"How are you doing?" Sei asked, leaning against the bars of the prison. Meg watched her, warily, for a moment, before pushing herself slowly off the edge of the bed, moving slowly over to Sei. She moved stiffly, cautiously. Prison life hadn't agreed with her.

"I've been better. Isolation does things to you."

Sei exhaled sharply, wishing she knew how to respond to that. There was no hope for parole, no hope for an end to her prison term, not for Meg. Not after all the terrible things she'd done to the RAPT board members. The photos of Howard's body, shown during the trial, flashed into her memory.

"Amy sends her best. She says she's acing maths," Sei said, shrugging out of her jacket and laying it over her arm. She watched Meg's eyes intently – the inmate didn't even flinch as the old scarf landed on the bed. She didn't miss a beat as she casually nudged the tattered rag under her bed.

They stood in awkward silence for a while.

"Why?"

The question put Sei off balance. "Why what?"

"Why did you come?"

Sei paused, trying to gather her thoughts. "I… hoped that I would be able to do something for you, now. Since I've never been able to help you before. Not when RAPT had you, not in the years following. I could have reached out to you, but I- I didn't."

Meg wandered back to the bed, sitting down on it. The springs groaned, even under her dwindled weight.

"I see." A humourless smile. "If it matters anymore, I don't blame you, Sei. Jo chose her own path, just like how I chose mine," she said, gesturing to her sparse surroundings, the Warden not twenty feet from where they conversed. "I knew the price, Sei, and I paid it. Gladly. For Jo, I'd do it another hundred times over."

As Sei left the prison, she realized that Meg's eyes had no longer been haunted, deadened. They had been accepting. Meg had clawed back her vengeance for Jo, and in doing so, had found an odd sort of peace within herself. The Meg that had worked for Sei, before the RAPT incident, had died, her rage finally sated and her mind finally clear.

A feeling of loss swept over Sei, and she wasn't sure why.

* * *

**_Bai-Lan Hunted!_**

_TOKYO__. Earlier today, the Tokyo Initiative announced plans to sever ties with criminal organizations such as  
Bai-Lan and the Kanbaku, ending the two-year business relationship between the three organizations._

_In the months prior to the revelation, the Initiative had remained stoic in its decision to use the contacts Bai-Lan  
and the Kanbaku offered._

_This announcement follows the conviction of Bai-Lan agent Meg Mitarai for the  
murders of fourteen RAPT board members and the whirlwind dismissal of Detective Takane Katsu from the  
Initiative over her alleged links to the Kanbaku biker gang. _

_"We are against criminal activity, in all its forms," Chief Katsu said today, outside Station 1. "Unfortunately,  
organizations such as the Kokuren and Bai-Lan have not seen fit to reduce their illegal interests. We can no  
longer tolerate such blatant disregard for the law."_

_Jei of the Kokuren clan and Sei Laoban of Bai-Lan were unavailable for commenting._

* * *

Sei boarded the _Elizabeth _with a heavy heart. The decision to move their base of operation back to China had been one she'd made many weeks ago, even without the added pressure the Initiative was putting on them.

In the end, what need did Tokyo have, for the peace-keeping Bai-Lan Sei had envisioned? They had the Initiative now, a true peace-keeping force that had truly put the city back on the path to enlightenment. Citizens no longer feared to walk around at night, no longer _needed _to carry arms. It was the end Sei had always dreamed of. A peaceful Tokyo. She'd liked to have thought that maybe, just a little, Bai-Lan had helped in this regard, had helped win that peace.

Her smile was a little bitter. For all that it was a victory, it truly was an empty one.

She'd given the cause Jo, hoping to end the descent into barbarism in one fell swoop. She'd let go of Amy, to save the girl from the public backlash against syndicates. Meg had been drowned by betrayal and injustice, and Sei had been helpless to stop the city from claiming her as well.

Tokyo had taken her family as its price for peace, and that she would never spend her days with her old cell again. The world they'd lived in, the times they had shared, were lost to her forever.

Sei felt the _Elizabeth__'s _engines roar to life, and seated herself in the command room, her chin resting in the palm of her hand.

_(("Do you really think it's going to get that bad?"))_

_(("I knew the price, Sei, and I paid it.")) _

Had it been acceptance of the inevitable that had dragged Meg down, and forced Sei to drive Amy away? Wordlessly taking over one of the control panels from Hachi, Sei's eyes narrowed as she brought up the hacked blue-print of the island prison, and the boarding school's phone number.

Perhaps, things didn't have to end this way.

* * *

**A/N: **Definately not my usual style. I think I'll stick to longer works in the future.

Yes, the articles _are _quite junky, aren't they? They're meant to be. Tabloids with no standards ftw.

I freely admit that turned out quite... black. I had no idea it would become so grim when I started it.

It was my take on what might _realistically_ happen after the events of Burst Angel, and then make them worse. I honestly doubt that the buck would stop with RAPT – these people are sly. They would never have left a paper trail that could link them to Project Zero, the Luciana Project and the Osaka incident. So, I conclude, that they would get away with it – at least, legally. Meg wouldn't stand for that, though (though she has certainly cracked in this fic).

With the Hanshin stepping in to fill the void left by RAPT, it would be much more difficult for organizations such as Bai-Lan, the Kokuren and the Kanbaku to operate freely. It would show double-standards that would be scrutinized. After all, Tokyo just got rid of a corrupt law force, they don't want another one. Given the extra attention the police are paying, Meg would have been unable to extract her bloody revenge for Jo, and so was arrested.

In short, within a few years, Tokyo's environment would have changed completely, from one in which Bai-Lan can operate, to one which it _can't. _While this is Sei's goal, it does fill her with regrets for a time gone by.

Either way, this takes a few cues from the 5-min epilogue, but it clearly doesn't follow it (such as Meg being in prison). Further, while I took cues from my fic _Crimson Burst Angel _(eg the Initiative), it's **unrelated**.


End file.
